Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Thank you for calling........

My colleague, young impatient and a dog freak, has bought his third new phone of the year!I have been observing an increasing trend of different consumer goods makers starting the concept of decreased free warranty and increased paid and offcourse limited warranties. This has resulted in a frivolous and unstable market, where no product is stable, and nothing stays a novelty after three to six months. Increased competiotion means that every large corporations have jazzed up their R&D and at the same time tried to cut costs. This invariably leads to a more versatile but less durable product!An effort to influnce customer mindset: As we march into the zenith of civilization where technology starts to play a role right from ones first breath to the last; and as the free world economy aided by free market idealogoies and an increased demand for goods and services pushes the common man financialy more and more- the buying trends have started to change dramatically. A bold, but at times frivolous new generation has become impatient whats old no longer finds favor. This has forced and again helped the large corporations to propagate a use and throw mindset of the user(read consumer). By offering zero support for their older products, they effectively force the consumer to buy the newer one, thus forcing them to spend more than they originally intend. Behind every customer service call is the mindset of an upsale.The question now comes to the mind as and when the craze for new technology dies down, which it inevitably will like others did, what would these corporations be left with. With the concept of doing pure customer service a thing of the past, will these companies be able to bring up som new trick out of their bag or will they face the same fate that Bush did post the WAR AGAINST TERROR frenzy? We already have started hearing rumblings of protest from several quarters. To counter Windows and its expensive world there is now Linux and its unabashed world of free computing! Already Android has eaten up O2 and a lot more exciting things are in store!At least one thing never gets old- the word FREE!